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Goddess Hera with God Zeus |
Two life-sized marble statues of Greek goddesses have been uncovered during an excavation of a 5,000-year-old town on the island of Crete.
The sculptures depict the goddesses Athena and Hera, dating back to the 2nd and 4th centuries AD, a period when Rome ruled Greece. They were originally used to decorate the Roman theater in the town of Gortyn.
Archaeologist Anna Micheli from the Italian Archaeological School stated, “The two pieces are still in excellent condition. The statue of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, is intact. However, the statue of Hera, the long-suffering wife of Zeus (the famously unfaithful god), is missing its head. We hope to find the head in the surrounding area.”
Standing nearly 2 meters tall on their bases, the two sculptures were discovered on September 27 when a team of Italian and Greek archaeologists was excavating the ruins of the theater in Gortyn.
Micheli noted that the goddesses were toppled from their pedestal due to a strong earthquake around the year 367 AD, which devastated the theater and much of the town. “It is rare for such works to be found at their original location,” Micheli remarked.
Archaeologists hope to uncover more statues from the theater during the ongoing excavation.
Gortyn, the Roman capital of the island of Crete, was first established around 3000 BC and was a thriving Minoan town from approximately 1600 to 1100 BC. It flourished during the classical Roman period before being destroyed by Arab forces in 824 AD.
Greek mythology recounts that the town witnessed one of Zeus’s many infidelities—with Princess Europa. Zeus disguised himself as a bull and abducted the princess from Lebanon. The name Europe is derived from Europa, who bore her first son with Zeus under a sacred tree in Gortyn.
M.T
